interesting data: economic profiles for mississippi counties

[hillhunter]

Notice a large amount of anchor industries are either production ag or forestry in almost every county.

[greenheadgrimreaper]

Yep, and that (forestry) is what Winston county was founded on and has, since Louisville has been incorporated, been our main form of economic income. What farming still is to the delta, logging was to the hills. 10 years ago you'd have been hard pressed to find 5 people who didn't have an immediate family member was not employed as a direct result of the logging industry, outside of Taylor Machine Works and its subsidiaries. GP, dozens of logging companies, a couple of smaller timber companies, mechanics, foresters, etc. Sad really. Just like other east central MS towns, when I think of home, I think of the forestry industry and how it put the "town" in Louisville. A many a' logging worker called my family to order a load of brick for their new home when times were good. Now the times ain't so good, and the brick ain't from red hills clay. But I'll say that the forestry industry starting taking major hits 7 or 8 years ago at least. It was around that time when logging companies starting folding and the GP plant was really having serious problems staying open.

I noticed Neshoba county's production ag was way up, and animal production is in the top 10 employment sectors. I have noticed the huge numbers of hog and chicken farms that are being put up everywhere. I hope they do better than the folks in Winston. I could take you to a half a dozen places in the county that did about a decade in poultry and swine production and shut down.

But damn I can't get over Winston County's numbers. I knew it was bad, but the numbers compared to other counties confirm it's REALLY bad. Negatives damn near all the way down the line. A 33% drop in manufacturing? In a town of 7,000 people... I tell you boys what, it's hard to find another county that has been hit as hard as Winston in this recession. It has completely changed the dynamics of our community. I just hope we can hold on. Thank God for Oktibeha and Lowndes county or it'd be even worse. We need some leaders. Like my old boss who's a smart son of a bitch with Vietnam War street cred said, " the status quo in Winston county has left us all behind while counties surrounding us are at least in the black." We need leaders, not good ole boys.

[bhuggins]

I didn't look at all of the counties, but in the several I did look at one thing that stands out as remarkable is almost every single one had a growth in government and government "enterprises”, irregardless of whether or not their RGP went up or down.

I can't speak for all of the other counties but in Alcorn Co. (Corinth) the biggest employer is the hospital and it is owned by the county so it shows up as a government employer. Not what I typically think of as a government job but it shows up that way on the survey none the less.

[deltadukman]

Thing that keeps alot of poultry producers from making it is the fact that the intergraters(companies) base their decisions on a competition grading basis where the grower has to compete with the other farmers to keep the contracts. The only way to not get behind and overlooked is to constantly pump money bacj in their poultry houses and keep updating with the latest and most cost efficient ways and means....alot take the money and keep it soley for themselvea.

[greenheadgrimreaper]

Yep, I know Oktibeha County Hospital does the same. But they are in the process of selling the hospital to a private enitity, who I hear is planning on cleaning house. So, to be sure my post was only speculation and really more questions than anything. Only an economist and particularly the ones who did the study could shed light on some of the assumptions. In any case, when OCH sells it'd obviously show a drop in all the corresponding categories. Just goes to show the complexity of our economy. If the same thing happened with Neshoba, then it would probably correspond to the visible drop in government. But if anything is learned, it is that government needs to stay out of the way, and the dismal numbers of the study show just why: nobody is happy with an economy where government is growing.

[greenheadgrimreaper]

Thing that keeps alot of poultry producers from making it is the fact that the intergraters(companies) base their decisions on a competition grading basis where the grower has to compete with the other farmers to keep the contracts. The only way to not get behind and overlooked is to constantly pump money bacj in their poultry houses and keep updating with the latest and most cost efficient ways and means....alot take the money and keep it soley for themselvea.

I watched a documentary called "Food Inc" and they interviewed several poultry producers about this. Not long after I watched I went to help my cousin move some stuff and got into a conversation with a former Winston county poultry producer about what you mentioned. He said the exact same thing: if you aren't constantly sinking money into the houses based on THEIR terms then you get no money (or a lot less if you're lucky) as I understood it. He also said that 3 weeks into his operation, when it was new, that he swore he'd never eat another chicken from the grocery store again. If that isn't telling, I don't know what is. Not trying to knock any pultry producers on here. You can trust me on that too, because I will smash some grocery store chicken.

[tobydawg]

I guess Warren didn't make the cut.

msucares, just not about Warren county.

Or Tishomingo county either haha

[donia]

warren is on the list, now

tishomingo still is not on the list, yet

[TODO]

Mississippi is so rural that the majority of the counties are in decline. You've got Desoto up north, Pontotoc, Lafayette, Lee, and Union to the east, Madison and Rankin in the central part of the state, and some of the coast counties doing well. Everybody else in a vaccum . . . loosing population, loosing industry, etc. etc. etc. Not sure what the solution is, just an observation.

[JDgator]

Mississippi is rich in land and resources. It only looks poor because our country chronically under-values agriculture and timber production. One day our country will realize that developing your own raw goods is as important a part of national defense as guns and missles.

[teul2]

One day our country will realize that developing your own raw goods is as important a part of national defense as guns and missles.

The bad thins is, it probably will not happen in our lifetime.

[skuna]

When I look at the unemployment rate in my county (Calhoun) and it makes me sick. There is simply no reason for it. The company I work for has a hard time finding people, mostly young men, that wants to work and will work and make a decent living. We provide better than average wages, solid benefits and always steady work, yet when we go through the hiring process there are always folks that work a few weeks and end up being fired for not showing up or walk off the job. i'd say that we have about a 25% sucess rate at bringing folks in for longer than 1 year. Then you got the ag industry that has to import labor in order to make a crop, when there are a plentiful supply of young, able body men, sitting on thier booty drawing a check or living off of family members.

And another thing to add......I started as an entry level employee in 99 at the age of 21...and like most of the guys of my age, had been taught how to work as a kid growing up.....Now a-days the majority of the kids coming in at that age have never been around a piece of heavy equipment, never driven anything but a car, dont know how to work, and have spend the first 20 plus years of thier pampared life playing Playstation or Xbox 14 hours a day. I'm scared to think what we will look like in 20 years.